Paper Cup Air Cannon

by MaddHatter

43K5531

Intro: Paper Cup Air Cannon

A DIY version of AirZooka. A simple air cannon that will shoot puffs of air in the shape of torus (AKA: Rings). Add smoke and you get smoke rings.

STEP 1: Materials

Materials List:
Paper Cup with lid
A latex glove or balloon
Tape
Scissors

Notes:
While I don't want to condone the consumption of awful food, McDonalds has cool lids for this. Try and get the lids that have the circle cut in the top (maybe McFlurries).
If you use a balloon, it is actually better to use an old one that you have carefully deflated. The streched latex works better than new.

STEP 2: Punch Out the Bottom of the Cup.

Use scissors to punch a hole in the bottom of the cup. Simply rip out the bottom using your thumb to punch out the bottom. It really doesn't have to be pretty, just make a tube.

STEP 3: Attach Skin

Cut balloon or glove to get a piece of latex large enough to cover the bottom of cup.
Use tape (or your favorite adhesive method) to tack down the latex to the cup. Then seal up the latex to make an air-tight membrane over the cup (basically - make a drum).

STEP 4: Attach Lid and Annoy Others.

Attach lid and fire away.
If you cut the hole, try and keep the hole to about half the total diameter of the lid (to make better rings).

To fire:
Pinch and strech latex. A puff of air will travel a meter or more. This puff is not incredibly powerful, but can be felt. The TWUNK sound as the cannon is fired will annoy parents/spouses/co-workers within three minutes.

Add smoke and you can make smoke rings. I imagine some creative type could come up with way of shooting smells...

Happy Building
The Hatter

29 Comments

thealeks 11 years ago

shooting smells? now i want to fart in one...

fallenspirit123 14 years ago

holy crap that video of the torus collision was awesome

trebuchet03 17 years ago

Define "effective" :P I've done this with air while scuba diving. If you start it really deep, the ring becomes really big by the time it reaches the surface as the compressed air expands :P Really, these interaction happen all the time - but we have no medium to view them :P

trebuchet03 17 years ago

haha that's really funny :P I just use my mouth :P

AlexTheGreat 17 years ago

oh, you're making a giant one too. Are you going to use a tarp or material on the end or some sort of piston.

Frindledon3 15 years ago

I made one out of a quacker oats cylinder, a rubberband, and a balloon. it can shoot like a max. of 15 ft. my friend bought an airzooka and was shooting people from a 2 story balcony and messing up there hair If you were to make one 3x the size of an airzooka it would go like 50 ft.

Flash Gordon 15 years ago

Awesome use a garbage drum maybe...

trebuchet03 17 years ago

Ah man, I'm totally in the middle of a giant sized version :) I really need to publish stuffs :P

bigfootduck 15 years ago

DUDE! That's crazy! Did you make that?!

MaddHatter 16 years ago

Yep, this is exactly what we built. I do have to say that I'm impressed with the smoke they produced in the video. We had problems making smoke that was not to noxious (hum, I guess we shouldn't use this indoors...). Ended up making smudge sticks out of paper soaked in Potassium Nitrate and left to dry. When lit they smoldered for 45 seconds and produced smoke. Anyone have ideas on how to make smoke without a fog machine?

gotja 16 years ago

well you mix salt peter (potassium nitrate) with sugar (works better if you melt the 2 together) and you put a fuse on it when your moldint it wrap it in like paper or foil and light it it makes alot of smoke for a decent amount of time go to youtube and search it

bedbugg2 16 years ago

with a giant one you can make extreme smoke rings!

crapflinger 17 years ago

i don't wanna spoil the fun...but...how giant is giant?

trebuchet03 17 years ago

I'm shooting for a 3' diameter ring.... Pun totally intended :P Then, I'm going to chop the thing to see just how big a reservoir is needed to preserve the effect.

shadow90 15 years ago

in theory, couldn't you have just cut a circle into the bottom of the cup and attatched the rubber to the top?
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